Segovia Day 2

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Started our day by hiking down the hill to the Monasterio de Santa Maria del Parral. A monk (from India) gave us a brief tour of the allowable areas and the chapel. Pretty informative and was probably free, but we gave him a donation. After checking out a couple of other sites nearby that were uninteresting, we hiked back up the hill (phew!) to visit the Alcanzar. This is the castle/palace that Disney modeled their Magic Kingdom castle after. For 8 Euros we toured inside, and I climbed the 152 steps of the tower (pant!). The Alcanzar had a lot of cool historical artifacts, like suits of armor and an artillery museum, along with a lot of fancy royal furnishings and tapestries. We decided that for lunch we were going to take some advice from one of the internet reviews of Segovia and try the city´s famous oven-roasted piglet for lunch. The spanish eat their biggest meal for lunch. I guess thats why they need the siesta! The restaurant Casa Duque was recommended for this type of meal, stating that the portions were so big that two people could split one meal. We ordered the more expensive combination with an assortment of local appetizers, suckling pig, dessert, wine, water, bread, and coffee for 39 Euros. Everything was delicious, although we didn´t try the blood sausage, and there definitely was plenty for both of us. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap. The rest of the evening was uneventful and we had to hit the hay early for our 7:30am bus to Madrid to catch the Altaria train to Jerez.

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Photos

Alcanzar
The Alcanzar Castle/Palace. The castle Disney copied from for the Magic Kingdom.